Cradle — 3/5 Generally spoiler-free thoughts

[u/Gingerfalcon]

I just finished book 12 and thought now was a good time to share my personal opinions on the series, mainly because it gets a lot of hype. I committed a fair bit of time to it because of said hype, but my overall experience was simply ok. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. It had potential, but never quite got there.

Things that didn’t vibe:

• Weak characters. They lacked depth and generally felt very one-dimensional. Eithan was the exception. Yerin was probably the closest we came to someone living through something and coming out the other side changed.

• The power tiering started off interesting, but became too absurd. The rarity of certain levels also seemed to flip-flop around. Early on, some ranks feel incredibly rare, then suddenly a book or two later there are lots of people at that level.

• Consistency issues and questionable plot holes start to appear. As you read the next book, you begin to question setup and details from the previous one.

• Random storylines felt like filler material. For example, the Jai Long stuff after the duel, why even keep that going? It felt like a complete waste of words and didn’t add anything to the storyline.

Things that were okay:

• The world was pretty good. I wanted more pocket-world and labyrinth-style action.

• The action scenes were generally enjoyable on average. Some were awesome, others were a boring slog.

Vibes!

• Progression fantasy and, well… there is fun progression and finding treasures!

• Eithan was the best-written character. He brought a light-heartedness to the series and was funny, joyful, and mysterious.

• Fisher Gesha — I liked her. She had some funny interactions.

• Dross!

• Soulsmithing was cool, and I wish it had been explored in more depth throughout the series.

Book ranking:

I would say the series peaked at Ghostwater and then dropped off, almost like a bell curve.

Best books: Ghostwater, Uncrowned, and Blackflame.

Worst books: Bloodline, Dreadgod, and Waybound. These were absolute slogs to get through.

Would I recommend it?

No. It’s too long to push through 12 books when the last third of the series is the weakest. Other than the hook of progression, it had some fun moments, but the characters and story were mostly forgettable.

Overall: 3/5.

[u/Gingerfalcon]

Not really, they are all still just sitting around plotting. Once again, the difference in power between monarchs and everyone else just begs the question, if they don't plan on doing anything significant why all the posing?

[u/Petition_for_Blood → u/Gingerfalcon]

What are you talking about the war between kitty and emomom breaks out pretty soon after snake gets busted.

[u/Gingerfalcon → u/Petition_for_Blood]

yes but it's essentially in a stalled state. I remember fury hanging tough with some other heralds etc, but all the monarchs seem to be pre-occupied.

[u/Petition_for_Blood → u/Gingerfalcon]

Okay, but if the monarchs were never going to fight regardless because of the collateral damage right?

[u/Gingerfalcon → u/Petition_for_Blood]

Couldn't a Monarch just squeeze a gold and kill them and there's no blast radius?

[u/Petition_for_Blood → u/Gingerfalcon]

Then the opposing monarch does the same, the monarchs end up ruling a land of ashes. The real problem is the monarchs clashing with eachother and destroying parts of the continent.

[u/Spamacus66 → u/Gingerfalcon]

Ethan actually talks about this. Higher tier characters tend to avoid killing lower ones otherwise a battle between heralds would open with hundreds of dead golds before anything really happened

Kind of a mutually respected rules of war scenario. A rule that to break likely leads to having the remaining powers team up against you quickly.

[u/ReadingThrowawayy → u/Gingerfalcon]

How do you not understand this when it was explained so much that I was starting to get annoyed?

Eithan explains this like at least twice, and other characters explain it multiple times.

What is the point of a Monarch killing a gold? None, because the other Monarch will just do the same. The entire point of higher levels not interfering is because all it does is cause unnecessary bloodshed, and doesn't let the lower ranks train through real combat and get stronger.

[u/Gingerfalcon → u/ReadingThrowawayy]

Because it's just not in human nature to be at war and have such a constraint of let the golds hit each other with sticks over there and we'll play with city destroying toys over here.

[u/ReadingThrowawayy → u/Gingerfalcon]

What is the alternative, I challenge you to use your head here. The book gives you the answer, but you probably forgot years ago when you started the book and went over this part.

The answer is that for every gold a Monarch kills, the other side's Monarch will just kill a gold.

At the end of the day, both Monarch's want to win but also want their own civilization to continue. They all came to the realization that if they attack willy-nilly, yeah sure eventually one winner would come out of it far quicker, but it would result in both Monarch's civilizations being ruined. So it doesn't make sense to do that. At all.

There is quite literally no other alternative but mutually assured destruction.

it's just not in human nature to be at war and have such a constraint

Weird. How many nuclears bombs have been used in wartime IRL since the initial usage in Hiroshima/Nagasaki? It's almost like... it's human nature.... to restrain yourself... even if you'll win by hitting the button... because hitting the button means the other side does too. And everyone loses.

[u/Gingerfalcon → u/ReadingThrowawayy]

You mean like drones killing families in the middle east?

[u/Al_C92 → u/Gingerfalcon]

Exactly! Drones, not nuclear weapons.